Rose Hibiscus Whipped Body Butter

With Valentine's Day around the corner, we often find that it's difficult to find non-edible gifts that don't feel cheesy or silly (drug store teddy bears, we're looking at you). It's especially tricky to find cute gifts for non-romantic loves that you want to surprise with something sweet--friends, sisters, mom--without going the classic potted plant or candy route. Cue this Rose Hibiscus Whipped Body Butter. Inspired by the classic dozen roses of Valentine's Day, this simple DIY smells great and is a breeze to make. It's even cost effective so you can make a large batch and spread the love come Valentine's Day.

3.) Add a few drops of hibiscus tea for color (you can add more later to adjust color while mixing).

4.) Drop in Rose Absolute Essential Oil until you have desired fragrance strength. (We used about 8 drops).

5.) With a hand or stand mixer, whip mixture for approximately ten minutes until mixture becomes fluffy and forms peaks. This requires a bit of patience--just when you don't think it's working, it becomes fluffy and airy so hang in there. It's worth the wait! Add to glass container when it's whipped.

Sugared Rose Petals

The next steps are for making sugared rose petals top top your body whip for decoration. If you don't want to add these, you're finished! If you do, follow the next steps:

6.) Bring two Tbsp. of white sugar and 2 Tbsp. of water to a boil and stir until sugar is melted. This is your simple syrup to get sugar to stick to rose petals. Allow syrup to cool and dip roses petals in syrup.

7. Sprinkle with white sugar and allow them to dry overnight. Top your whipped body butter with rose petal and enjoy!

Contributed by:Emily Hirsch and Erick Steinberg are photography and styling duo behind Heidi's Bridge, a lifestyle brand with a focus on food, gatherings, and workshops. When they're not blogging or working as 2/4 of the creative agency Jolly Bureau, you can find them making pies or driving to the mountains.

This looks so gorgeous and I imagine it must smell so too! I love the styling and photography, will definitely be checking out Heidi's Bridge. I'll probably make this body butter as a gift for my girlfriends or for Mother's Day...we'll see!

Have you tried using refined coconut oil that has no scent to let the rose shine through? I'd be worried about this recipe as it doesn't have a preservative and it contains water (tea.) An alternate solution is that you could infused the sweet almond oil with the tea in the same way you create an oil infusion.

I have a few concerns about this recipe. Mainly because you added water to it. I don't see an emulsifier or a preservative so how does this body butter stay stable without separating and bacteria free?

Hey Courtney! You're absolutely correct - this body butter isn't supposed to have a long shelf life (hence why we used the smallest weck jar possible thinking that we'd go through it quickly!). Personally, I'm not a big fan of some of the harsh preservatives found in many beauty products, that's why I skip them. If you want to improve the shelf life, you could skip the water (which we added for coloring) or put it in the fridge a 'la the Lush Beauty model :) Hope this helps.